Local Support Groups

NFCA GREAT Guide

Own, Manage or Cook at a restaurant? Are you a Dietitian with Celiac patients? Interested in becoming certified Gluten Free? The Gluten Free Raleigh Blog can help. Click the picture above for more information.

Celiac Disease Stats

1 out of every 133 Americans (about 3 million people or 1% of population) has Celiac Disease.

97% of Americans estimated to have CD are not diagnosed.

CD has over 300 known symptoms although some people experience none.

Age of diagnosis is key: If you are diagnosed between age 2-4, your chance of getting an additional autoimmune disorder is 10.5%. Over the age of 20, that rockets up to 34%.

30% of the US population is estimated to have the genes necessary for CD.

2.5 babies are born every minute in the USA with the genetic makeup to have CD.

There are 15 states in the US with populations less than the total number of Celiacs in the US.

CD affects more people in the US than Crohn’s Disease, Cystic Fibrosis, Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease combined.

500,000 new Celiac diagnoses are expected to occur in the US by 2012 -- thanks to efforts to raise public awareness of the disease.

People with CD dine out 80% less than they used to before diagnosis and believe less than 10% of eating establishments have a 'very good' or 'good' understanding of GF diets.

It takes an average of 11 years for patients to be properly diagnosed with CD even though a simple blood test exists.

The average cost of misdiagnosis is $5,000 - $12,000 per person per year. Improving the time to diagnosis could save the health care system millions of dollars annually in unnecessary medical care.

A recent study by Packaged Facts projects that the sales of GF food will reach $2.63 Billion by 2012. The GF market is also projected to hit $5 Billion by 2015.

GF foods are, on average, 242% more expensive then their non-GF counterparts.

The smallest amount of gluten which has been shown by a biopsy to cause damage to a Celiac is 0.1 gram per day - or 1/48th of a slice of bread.

The Food Allergen Labeling & Consumer Protection Act became law in 2006 allowing for easier reading of food labels for those with CD but the law only requires labeling of wheat. Nearly 5 years later, the FDA still has not finalized what it means to label a product Gluten Free.

12% of people in the US who have Down Syndrome also have CD.

8% of people in the US who have Type 1 Diabetes also have CD.

Among people who have a first-degree relative diagnosed with Celiac, as many as 1 in 22 people may have the disease. First degree relatives should be tested yearly for CD even if previous tests were negative.

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

I again visited the Wake County Courthouse this morning to see the latest in the ongoing saga of the state of NC against Paul Seelig/Great Specialty Products. To see previous posts on this topic, please click here or click the gavel at the top right corner.

The last update on this case back on Feb 2nd detailed the granting of the preliminary injunction which shut down Great Specialty Products until further notice. At the end of that case, Paul Seelig was arrested on 6 felony counts of Obtaining Property Under False Pretenses (i.e. fraudulently selling gluten bread as gluten free). This morning's case was the first for the 6 felonies and a summary is provided below.

Paul Seelig was brought in front of the Judge and DA immediately asked the Judge if he could be appointed an attorney from the Public Defenders Office. He began explaining his case and detailing how was too broke to pay a lawyer to defend him. The DA then asked for the Judge to put Paul Seelig under oath so that his claims could be documented and he could be held accountable for lying to the court. Paul Seelig detailed the following items about his finances.

His brother (who was in court with him) loaned him $3,500 so he could post bail on the $100,000 bond set on Feb 2nd when he was originally arrested. How does somebody get out of a bond that big for so little?

He also said he was bailed out of another bond in Durham County which cost him $2,000. He had already been ruled indignant in that case (writing bad checks) and been appointed a public defender.

He has not been able to make any money with Great Specialty Products since the Feb 2nd injunction but did deposit $2,000 into the company bank account during January.

He detailed that he has a $250,000 mortgage on his Durham County home of which he still owes the entire amount.

He also detailed that he owns a Tahoe worth $15,000 but still owes $17,000 on the vehicle.

His only assets are the $1495 monthly stipend from Social Security disability.

After hearing all of this, the Judge ruled Paul Seelig indigent and granted his request to be appointed a public defender. The case was then continued until April 8th @ 9am. Nice to see this scumbag not only pulling in Social Security money from taxpayers but now we'll also foot the bill for the public defender. I'm sure folks won't care though as long as he ends up in the slammer.

NOTE: It was also mentioned in court that Paul Seelig has another appointment for a hearing on 3 additional felony Obtaining Property Under False Pretenses counts (grand total of 9). These also are a result of the original Preliminary Injunction hearing brought against him by the North Carolina Department of Agriculture.

Monday, February 22, 2010

In continuing her frequent visits to North Carolina, Jules Shepard has announced her first 2010 cooking class in Raleigh. The class will be held on Saturday, March 20th, 2010 from 2pm - 430p at the Brier Creek Earth Fare. Baltimore resident (NC native), Jules Shepard has been written about extensively on this blog and is one of my favorite people I've met. Jules is truly and expert when it comes to baking, Celiac Disease and living Gluten Free. She is extremely knowledgeable and well known in the national Gluten Free scene. Did I mention that she has developed an awesome GF flour product as well! I've said before that we are extremely lucky to have her visit Raleigh and put on her cooking classes. If you have not had the chance to attend a class, now is the time. If you have been to one, you can still learn some more from Jules.

The event will cost $40 per person or $70 per couple if you are in the same family. As always, a portion of the class fee is donated to the University of Maryland Center for Celiac Research. Jules will also do a raffle for a Gluten Free goodie gift basket - this is always a crowd favorite. She will also have her world famous cup-for-cup replacement GF flour (a certified Gluten Free product) for sale as well as her books.

To register, please visit or call Earth Fare @ Brier Creek 919-433-1390 or go to JulesGlutenFree.com to register online for the event. The direct link is here. There are normally about 30-40 seats available for this class and it is always full with some standing room only. I'd suggest you hurry up and register now before the class is full. As always, a huge thanks to Earth Fare for putting on this class and for donating the ingredients used during the class. If you have not been to Earth Fare before, they have over 1,000 Gluten Free products for sale!

Friday, February 19, 2010

I had the opportunity recently to visit the brand new Café Harmony; Raleigh's "first totally organic & natural café". Most of you are probably aware of the excellent grocery store called Harmony Farms which offers a ton of Gluten Free products. The grocery store is located at the corner of Creedmoor Road and Millbrook Road in North Raleigh (Creedmoor Crossings). The owners recently took over an empty space two doors down from the grocery store and opened a new café. Luckily for us, Café Harmony offers many Gluten Free options.

I stopped in for lunch and ordered an Albacore Tuna Melt off of their lunch menu. It was very tasty! The lunch menu also includes items like Smokey Black Bean Burger, Organic Egg Salad and Organic Chef Salad. For an extra $1, (what they call GFO), I changed my order to Gluten Free by easily substituting the bun (which I believe was a Jillian's French roll). In fact, 6 of their 9 lunch menu options are already GF or can be made GF for that extra $1. The café also offers a pretty extensive breakfast menu as well with items like Belgian Waffles, Organic Quiche or Green Eggs & Ham. You can also pick up some "A La Carte" options like GF yogurt Granola Parfait, Oatmeal or Donuts! Café Harmony also offers a small kids menu of 3 items (1/2 Tuna Melt, Grilled Banana & Peanut Butter or Grilled Cheese); all of which can be made Gluten Free. I spoke briefly with the manager about their GF food preparation practices and how they avoid/limit cross contact with other items that contain Gluten (this is not a dedicated GF restaurant). She let me know they take GF options very seriously and have the proper procedures and training in place to avoid cross-contact as much as possible. Gluten Free items are prepared in a separate location with separate utensils and are the only items being prepped at that time by the kitchen staff. Workers switch out their gloves and use red handled utensils for each GF order. Seems to me that Harmony Café has the proper procedures in place to make GF items as safe or safer than any other restaurant with a shared kitchen could provide. If you have any questions or concerns, you should stop in and talk them over (or call) to make you feel comfortable.

Café Harmony's mission statement states that they "are dedicated to bringing Raleigh the best of organic and locally supported food. We promote healthy alternatives by providing Gluten Free options & meeting diverse dietary needs." Sounds like a great mission that really offers Gluten Free consumers a great breakfast/lunch spot.

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

New research will be funded by the US Government to develop "wheat varieties with reduced Celiac Disease-causing proteins" - basically Gluten Free Wheat. That's a novel idea but kinda hard to imagine. Arcadia Biosciences, Inc and Washington State University will use the $855,500 grant to conduct the research over the next 2 years. The Savvy Celiac blog has a great write up here. Somehow this seems like a good idea in concept but may be hard to put into place in the real world. Will there be GF wheat and normal wheat products? Will we have to read the label with even more confusion? What about barley and rye? Hmm...

Quick update for Asheville, NC and the Posana Cafe... There has been a lot of reviews done about this Gluten Free restaurant so I just wanted to spread the word. Another excellent review from the Celiac Chicks blog from New York City. Here is another article from Celiac-Disease.com. Can't wait to check this place out on my next visit to Asheville.

Check out a blog post from Custom Choice Cereal where they detail their use of Gluten Free cleaning supplies from Mrs. Meyer's Household Cleaners. This company takes Gluten Free seriously, right down to the products they use to clean their facility and hands!

Starbucks Gluten Free options expand. Check out the following from Triumph Gluten Free here as well as another write up from Celiac-Disease.com here. Dr. Lucy's cookies are now available. I've picked up the 3 varieties shown below at the Starbucks on Falls of Neuse (next door to ZPizza) and thought they were pretty good. Triumph also reviewed these cookies here.

Twin Cakes Bakery's latest newsletter says the following about their new Gluten Product Testing Policy...Product testing: We are in the process of randomly checking our products for gluten. We so far we have tested three products and all have come back negative! We will continue to product test all of our products to ensure quality and safety. (We are using the EZ Gluten testing)". This is great news! I highly encourage all companies that make Gluten Free products to test their products (or obtain an independent certification like GIG's GFCO) if they are not already doing so. I also highly encourage you as the GF consumer to support those companies going the extra mile (and expense) to prove to you that their products are safe.

Saw the following in the February 7th, 2010 bulletin (see page 7) from Sacred Heart Cathedral (Downtown Raleigh Catholic Church) about offering low gluten host for communion - "the Cathedral will make available the low gluten hosts for our gluten-intolerant parishioners." Just as an FYI, tests performed on these low gluten hosts have come back at 100 PPM.

Triumph Dining helps spread the word about the NC Dept. of Agriculture case versus Great Specialty Products and provides the FDA's phone number for you to call and tell them about it. They should know that their lack of action is leading to this fraudulent type of behavior. More to come on this case next week.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Just a friendly reminder about this month's Greater North Raleigh Celiac Support Group meeting. The meeting is Thursday, February 18th at 7pm at Rex Hospital. This month, we'll have several visitors; representatives from the North Carolina Department of Agriculture have requested to return to the February meeting to provide an update on the ongoing saga of fraudulent Gluten Free food selling by Great Specialty Products. Click here to read about this case. We will also have Hajo from Custom Choice Cereal at the meeting to speak about his Gluten Free custom cereal company and to provide some samples of his tasty, safe product. Read my review of Custom Choice Cereal here. Don't forget to submit your GFR T-shirt design ideas to receive a 20% off your Custom Choice Cereal order (valid until end of February).

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT MARCH MEETING - Our March 18th meeting will be held at Rosie's Plate, 701 N. Person St, Raleigh, 27604. Rose is planning a tour and tasting for us and wants to be sure she has enough of everything, including chairs! We will need an RSVP, by March 1st. Please let Pat Berger know by e-mail or at our meeting this week.

Please email Pat Berger to request more information about the group or if you are interested in attending this month's meeting.

Monday, February 15, 2010

An update to the continuing story on the 2nd Raleigh location for Whole Foods. I've been following this story since September 2008 (with updates in March 2009 and again in October 2009) and here is the latest from this February 2nd Triangle Business Journal article.

On Wednesday, 2/3, the new Whole Foods North Raleigh location broke ground at the Market @ Colonnade shopping center. The $20 million center (anchored by WF) is located at the corner of Six Forks Road & Colonnade Center Drive (just south of Strickland Road). The Whole Foods store will be 40,000 square feet (compare that to the 12,000 square foot Trader Joe's that opened recently in Raleigh) and will also have another 17,000 square feet of retail space. The target opening date is early 2011 and the store will be the first new Whole Foods in NC in more than a decade (most current Whole Foods took over previous grocery space like Wellspring).

Friday, February 12, 2010

Just wanted to let those of you out there with Celiac children know about the upcoming Raleigh Cel-Kids Support Group meeting on Saturday, February 27th, 2009 from 2pm - 4pm. The event will be held at the Raleigh Earth Fare (Brier Creek) and will feature a cookie taste test. If you have not see the groups blog, click here - lots of good information for parents.

Bring the family and please join our Raleigh Cel-Kids group at Earth Fare on February 27th from 4-6pm. Earth Fare is providing gluten-free cookies for tasting! Earth Fare is located on Moncreiffe Road, off of Brier Creek Parkway.
Please let us know if you can attend this event and how many individuals to expect by email at raleigh.celkids@gmail.com. Also, continue to check out our website (raleighcelkids.com) for up-to-date information.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

For a limited time, get a FREE electronic copy of the just-released Jules' Baker's Dozen e-Cookbook, with 13 of her most requested recipes! Simply click here and enter coupon code bakers1 (case sensitive).

Expand your gluten-free repertoire with 13 of Jules' easiest, most delicious, no-compromise recipes: as determined by the requests she gets from people like you! There's even a 3-page section on making other ingredient substitutions, for those concerned with other food sensitivities or allergies.

This e-cookbook retails for $9.95, but is yours FREE between now and Feb-16.

Also, if you haven't yet tried Jules' critically acclaimed all purpose flour, they are offering $5 off a Starter Kit (everything you need to start making delicious, gluten-free baked goods, including a 5-lb bag of all purpose flour, the Baker's Dozen e-cookbook, and two additional e-books) when you order between now and Feb-16! This is a $70 value that is regularly priced at $39.95, but is available for only $34.95 for a limited time. Click here to order today.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Twin Cakes Bakery is offering some great bakery items in time for Valentine's Day. They've also added a new site for online ordering of their Pure2Raw product line (gluten free raw foods). The online ordering site is now available here.For all the information on Valentine's Day specials (including a giveaway), see the Twin Cakes Bakery blog entry here.

Friday, February 5, 2010

It's my pleasure to introduce yet another awesome local company that caters to those eating Gluten Free (or some type of other allergen-free) – the Happy Tummy Baking Company. We first met Raleigh resident Maria Hopper last summer as she was researching the possibility of starting a new company that would make pizza crusts. You can see previous posts here about the Allergen Free Pizza Crusts she has been working on. After many months of researching, polling potential customers and developing the product, Maria is now ready to launch.

Allergen-Free means Happy Tummy pizzas are free from the big eight allergens (wheat, milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, soy) but they are also Gluten Free, Yeast Free and Vegan as well. Wow! This truly is a product that everyone can enjoy. There are not too many companies out there doing the totally allergen-free thing (I can think of Enjoy Life and a few others but that's it), so kudos to Maria for going this extra step. The ready-to-bake frozen pizza crusts (add your own toppings) contain the following ingredients; water, white rice flour, tapioca starch, sorghum flour, Xanthan gum, salt, baking soda, cane sugar and canola oil. A simple recipe that has received rave reviews during several product tastings over the past few months.

Maria's motivation has been her own diagnosis with Celiac Disease as well as her daughter's Celiac and yeast sensitivities. It's also pretty common for Celiac's to have multiple other food sensitivities as well. This product fills the void that most other Gluten Free pizzas do not. Happy Tummy pizzas are currently made during off hours in a commercial kitchen owned by another company. Due to the fact that this kitchen does have other allergens present, Maria takes extensive measures to test her products. Maria employs Gluten testing daily to make sure her crusts are < 10PPM. She also brings all of her own dedicated pans, equipment and ingredients to the facility so that no shared items are used during the preparation or baking process. For these reasons, Gluten Free Raleigh did not need to perform any other testing per my new Product Testing Policy. There are plans in the future for Happy Tummy to move to their very own dedicated facility and to introduce additional products. We'll definitely keep our eyes on that.

Please see the pictures to the left for what the product packaging will look like.

The new Happy Tummy pizza crusts will be available in the Raleigh Whole Foods beginning in March. I'll provide another update/reminder as that time approaches so we can all support a local company.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

I just wanted to write a little follow-up to the Gluten Free 101 Class I taught recently at Rosie's Plate. The class happened back on January 23rd and was the second time it was held (first time was Oct 2009). I was very happy to see the class size jump from less than 15 to over 20! The class is basically an in-depth review of the Gluten Free Lifestyle (I don't like to call it a diet) mostly for those who are new to Celiac/GF but is also useful for more experienced folks as well. Things in the GF world are constantly changing and the class offers the very latest information.

The class hits on some key topics like; Celiac Disease/Gluten Intolerance, what exactly gluten is and how much is too much, how to update your house to be GF friendly, an interactive session on how to read food labels, gluten/non-gluten containing ingredients, grocery shopping, eating out a restaurants, GF cooking, GF medications/personal care products and all kinds of resources like health care, support groups, magazines/books and Web sites. The class is highly interactive - a great place to get your questions answered. In addition, you'll be able to sample a few Rosie's Plate products and go home with some safe new tasty food from Rosie's. A portion of the class fee is always donated to Camp Kanata's Gluten Free Week of summer camp for kids (so far the 2 classes have raised $275).

For more information, please click here or call Rosie's Plate @ 919-833-0505. The next class will be held on Saturday, April 24th from 1:00 - 3:30pm.

Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Please be sure to check out an awesome new feature over at Custom Choice Cereal's blog today - An all day virtual question & answer session with The Gluten Free Doctor; Dr. Stephen Wangen. This is a really cool idea! Big thanks to Hajo the owner/operator of Custom Choice Cereal for setting up this monthly feature on his blog (I've been trying to do this with a local doctor for awhile now without success). Dr. Wangen will be featured the first Wednesday of every month on Hajo's blog.

Click here to post your question. Dr. Wangen is monitoring the blog and will post responses via comments to your questions. If you've ever had something you've wanted to ask a doctor that was familiar with Celiac, now is your chance.

To read my recent review of Custom Choice Cereal, click here. Reminder - email me with your T-shirt Design ideas and I'll respond to you with a 20% off coupon code for your order (good February only) at Custom Choice Cereal.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

I have just returned from the Wake County Courthouse and will try my best to provide a summary of the nearly 2 and a half hour Preliminary Injunction hearing against Great Specialty Products. To read the background information on this topic, click here for my original post. Click here to read the Preliminary Injunction document.

Before the hearing began, Paul Seelig, owner/operator of Great Specialty Products asked the court for a continuance due to his poor health and lack of time to prepare. His legal counsel resigned from the case late last week and Mr. Seelig claims to be very ill at this time. Judge Titus denied that request and the hearing began as scheduled.

NC Department of Agriculture Summary
The lawyers representing the NCDA&CS started off the hearing seeking a Preliminary Injunction against Great Specialty Products by sharing a large amount of information as to the investigation conducted and the number of complaints received by the state. There were a total of 25 complaints received to date against GSP where consumers reported getting sick from the supposed Gluten Free products being sold. Nine signed affidavits were presented to the court as evidence in the case and 2 live witnesses were heard. One of the affidavits was submitted by Dr. Anant B. Soni, a internal medicine and Gastroenterology expert who assisted the State with information on Celiac Disease and the Gluten Free diet. The State told the court of Paul Seelig's past troubles with the law and some of the other shady things he has been a part of. For example, in 2001/2002, Mr. Seelig was indicted in Montana with various counts of crimes ranging from wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering, making false claims and making false statements. He was convicted via plea bargain on several of the charges and served several months in jail. Evidence was submitted where Mr. Seelig sent extortionary letters to a company involved in this case (Tribecca Oven) asking for money to be paid to him or legal action would be taken. Mr. Seelig was also shown to have acted under an alias of Jeff or Andrew Gleason and to have claimed various sicknesses in order to delay working with the State's investigation (things like H1N1, quarantined due to staph infection, cancer treatment and even heart attack). Mr. Seelig did not deny any of this information shared with the court. He also presented another fictitious letter from a Millersburg, Ohio Amish bakery called Rise'n Bakeries. This fake bakery was claimed to have been providing Great Specialty Products with Gluten Free baked goods since 1996. The State's investigation found no record of such company ever existing in Ohio.

The State called two witnesses, one a local consumer who was sickened by the bread and a representative from the NC Department of Agriculture. Both provided damning evidence against Great Specialty Products which were not refuted by cross-examination by Mr. Seelig. The details of the thorough and lenghty investigation by the Dept. of Ag were also shared with the court. The Dept. of Ag. was more than fair in their investigation and attempt to work with GSP. Constant stall tactics, lies and the uncooperativeness of Mr. Seelig was also shared with the court. Details about the products being tested by a lab at the University of Nebraska (FDA facility) were also submitted to the court. All tests showed that Great Speciality Products supposed Gluten Free bread actually contained >5,000 PPM. The investigation revealed that GSP was buying regular bread products from a company in NJ called Tribecca Oven and repackaging the products as GF.

Great Specialty Products Defense Summary
Paul Seelig had more than a fair opportunity to present evidence is his defense but was unable to do so. He had numerous chances to cross examine both witnesses and even called his own witness. His lone witness was a GSP employee who worked at the "repackaging facility". Paul Seelig asked the witness a few questions and then abruptly stopped after she gave her honest and condemning answers. Two questions in particular were crucial to the hearing - Mr. Seelig asked his "employee" whether she ever noticed Tribecca Oven products at their facility (a.k.a Paul's house in Durham) when she was preparing Gluten Free bread orders to which she replied "I never really paid attention." Mr. Seelig also asked her if Great Specialty Products indeed ordered their Gluten Free bread products from a company called Rise'n Bakeries in Millersburg, Ohio to which she replied "I don't know". Not even his own employee would defend him. The State's lawyers quickly cross-examined the employee and asked her to read an invoice which details where Great Specialty Products purchased bread from Tribecca Oven. Case closed basically at that point.

Judge Titus, after hearing all the extended testimony, then ruled in favor of granting the Preliminary Injunction against Great Specialty Products, Paul Seelig/Andrew/Jeff Gleason and any other employees of the company to stop selling food products. The judge ordered the company's Web site shut down and that the company must work with the NC Department of Agriculture in their ongoing investigation in any way requested. The judge didn't go as far to shut down the company entirely but did say he was very tempted. The State's investigation will continue until a time at which a Permanent Injunction can be sought. At the very end of the Judge's statement, he said to Mr. Seelig that the deputy has a little something for him. Paul Seelig was then escorted out of the courtroom into a private room where he was placed under arrest for obtaining funds under false pretenses (taking money from consumers for fraudulent GF products). The picture to the left was taken moments before Mr. Seelig was removed by the deputy.

UPDATE 2/2 @ 8PM
The story was shown by NBC17 during it's evening news tonight. Click here for the link and video. During the story, they said that Mr. Seelig collapsed while being taken into custody and was taken to WakeMed for treatment. From this WRAL story, he was later brought back to the magistrate's office and charged with six misdemeanor felony counts of obtaining property by false pretense. His bail was set at $100,000 due to his high flight risk.

UPDATE 2/3 @ 8AM

Some of the media outlets are incorrectly reporting that the charges brought forth against Mr. Seelig yesterday were misdemeanors when they are actually felonies. Paul Seelig will again be in court today @ 2pm.

Click here to read a recap from the News & Observer. Huge thanks to Andrea Weigl from the N&O for helping me shed light on this important story for our community! I've also uploaded his mug shot as well. Beware if you ever see this man.

UPDATE 2/3 @ 2PM
I spoke with someone at the Wake County Courthouse a few minutes ago and they said this hearing has been moved to 2/24/2010 @ 9am. No courtroom has yet been assigned.

UPDATE 2/4 @ 8AM
As ordered by the Court, the Web site address for Great Specialty Products has been removed.

UPDATE 2/5 @ 9AM
Story picked up by Celiac.com, one of the most read Web sites dealing with Celiac or Gluten Free living.

Recent Comments

DISCLAIMER: The contents of Gluten Free Raleigh are solely a summary of the experiences of the author intended for the use of aiding readers living Gluten Free.The author is neither a medical doctor nor a paid endorser of the products/services mentioned on this blog (unless specifically stated otherwise).Please use caution when applying these experiences to your own personal life.